Fake Hawaiian missile alert triggered by real fear

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) employee who sent an alert about an incoming missile to cellphones throughout the islands earlier this month really thought his state faced an imminent attack, according to federal regulators. The Federal Communications Commission issued the findings of its investigation into the faulty alert on Tuesday, criticizing Hawaii’s failure to implement fail-safe measures to prevent such a panic-inducing mistake. Shortly after regulators made their announcement, HI-EMA announced it had fired the employee who sent the alert and accepted the resignation of the department administrator. Hawaii residents and visitors huddled in closets, abandoned cars on highways, and frantically tried to find friends and family members after getting the alert Jan. 13. It took officials 38 minutes to send a correction alert. The still unidentified employee who sent the warning refused to speak to federal regulators, but state officials handed over his written explanation of what happened. As part of ongoing drills, the employee received a recorded message warning of a missile attack. He did not hear the phrase “exercise, exercise, exercise” repeated at the beginning and end of the message, which should have clued him in to it being part of the drill process. Thinking he’d received a real threat message, the employee sent the alert without checking with a supervisor or anyone else at the state agency.